Belly-Conrad Relationship
The relationship of Isabel Conklin and Conrad Fisher is a central, if not the main, relationship of The Summer Series. Their relationship initially begins as close friends as they grew up together throughout the many summers she and her family spent at their beach house. While Belly had a childhood crush on Conrad, he never returned the feelings, and her crush was largely known in the family. It is only in The Summer I Turned Pretty, that Conrad finally began returning her feelings after she "blossoms" into a beautiful young girl and he finally takes notice of her. By the end of the novel, the two enter into a relationship only for it to crash and burn by the following novel, It's Not Summer Without You. Despite this, the two show repeated signs of still harboring feelings for each other and have a rather rocky relationship together. The relationship faces obstacles due to Conrad's unstable emotions and inability to express his true feelings, which leaves Belly frustrated. When she realizes she has feelings for his brother, Jeremiah, it only serves to further complicate matters between them. Prior to series Prior to the trilogy, as seen in flashbacks throughout the first novel, Conrad had not seen Belly as anything more than his best friend's little sister. He showed a typical brotherly protective side towards her at times, though. The Summer I Turned Pretty He has been Belly's crush since early childhood, a fact well known by everyone. While Conrad has always cared for her in a brotherly sense, he strictly saw her as "his best friend's little sister". However, it appears that Conrad now suddenly sees her as a girl, not a little sister figure as before. Despite his character being something of a jerk or "asshole" to everyone throughout the novel, getting drunk and locked in his room, it is hinted at that he has developed newfound romantic feelings for Belly. This is hinted at when Conrad shows several accounts of getting either overly protective or jealous of guys flirting with her throughout the novel, such as when his friend Clay flirts with her. He also, while still getting along with him, seems to express a dislike and jealousy of Belly's relationship with Cam. Cam also takes note of how protective Conrad appears to be over Belly and later comments about how Conrad "looks at her", although Belly dismisses this. Conrad's first example of being highly protective happens when they are at a Cousins Bonfire party. It is Belly's first ever party and it is there that she meets Cam for the first time. When Cam and Belly talk and get to know each other, she tells him how she came with Conrad and Jeremiah and points to them. Cam says how he figured this, telling her that Conrad had been looking and watching them the whole time they were talking, and assumes him to be her protective older brother. Belly is left surprised to hear this and tells him that he isn't and he just "acts like an older brother". When Belly decides to leave with Cam and lets Conrad know she was leaving, he instantly becomes fiercely protective and the two loudly argue as Conrad refuses to let her leave. Ironically, a girl that Conrad had been talking to at the party notices his defensive attitude over Belly, bringing her to ask if Belly is his girlfriend. When both Belly and Conrad instantly say no, the girl becomes confused and asks if she was his little sister then. Despite Conrad's blunt refusal to let her leave with Cam, Belly intends to do so anyway. When she walks back to Cam and tells him they should just leave, he looks behind her at Conrad and is quickly intimidated. He then suggests they stay there instead. The two spend the rest of the evening talking, with Cam even giving her his hoodie when noticing Belly is cold. Belly (to herself) can mentally sense that Conrad was watching them and resists the urge to flip him off. As they leave, Conrad eyes the hoodie. For the car ride back home, he ignores her as Belly is in an emotional bliss from her time talking to Cam. Also in the novel, Conrad begins flirting with her whenever they are alone together, surprising Belly since he has never done so before. At the end of the novel, the two enter into a relationship. It's Not Summer Without You However, in'' It's Not Summer Without You'', the relationship proves to be short lived when Conrad slips back into his "asshat" ways and pushes her away - ending their relationship on a sour note. Despite this, Conrad is still secretly in love with Belly, just choosing not to act on his love as he believes that he will only ultimately hurt her. Later on, after giving her to his brother Jeremiah, he puts aside his personal feelings to focus on his brother's and Belly's happiness. We'll Always Have Summer In the third and final novel, We'll Always Have Summer, upon discovering of his brother's plans to marry "his girl," he fights his urge to declare his love for Belly, which hadn't died and is alive as ever. After finding out how his brother cheated on Belly, he tells her as soon as he sees her. However, he is shocked upon learning Belly is already aware of it and plans to marry Jeremiah anyway. Unable to deny his love for her any longer, he passionately declares his love for Belly, even insisting that she is the only girl he will ever truly love. Despite his heartfelt confession, Belly brutally rejects him - stating he is too late. Thus, he finds himself heartbroken. When Jeremiah finds out about his brother's confession, he takes off before his wedding day to Belly. Conrad soon finds him and attempts to convince him to return to Belly, but he refuses. Eventually, Conrad and him get into an intense and violent fight over Belly as boys begin arguing over who loved Belly more and deserved her. This ultimately results in Jeremiah disowning Conrad as his brother, vowing that they were "done". After his violent confrontation with his brother, Conrad says goodbye to Belly to give themselves time apart. Before leaving, he gives her the infinity necklace he failed to give to her years prior (during the first book of the series) along with heavily implying that he will always love her - declaring that loving her was worth all the trouble. After giving her a kiss on the forehead, he leaves. After this, Conrad and Belly stay apart for three years (though begin to letter write to each other after the first year). After writing a series of letters to Belly, he begs for her to write him back saying he needed to hear from her desperately, clearly missing her greatly, which she eventually does. He shows up at her college graduation another year later, resulting in their reunion as a couple again. He proposes to her after being in a relationship with her for about a year - possibly little over - afterward and the epilogue shows that the couple marry with Belly as his wife starting a new life for the newlyweds, marking the end of the series. Timeline *'First Relationship' **Start Up: Ending of The Summer I Turned Pretty **Broke Up: Prior to'' It's Not Summer Without You'' ***Reason: Conrad started becoming closed off with his feelings again. *'Second Relationship' **Start Up: Three years after We'll Always Have Summer ***Dated for a year+ **Married:'' We'll Always Have Summer epilogue Quotes Trivia *They got back together after spending three years apart in the ending of the third novel at Belly's college graduation. It is estimated that Conrad proposed to Belly after dating for about a year, possibly a little over. *The main reason for why they did not work together as a couple initially was due to Conrad having trouble controlling his negative feelings and emotions. He felt he could not be what Belly needed emotionally speaking due to his many personal issues because of his mother's illness/death and father's emotional abuse. It was only after the years following Susannah's death that Conrad managed to properly handle his feelings and personal issues and felt that he was finally ready to get together with Belly, at which point in the series, she was dating Jeremiah. *When asked when he knew he was in love with Belly, Conrad said that there was never a specific moment that he knew. He described it as a gradual feeling - comparing it to sleep and slowly waking up - that came to him over time. When he finally recognized the feeling, it left him with no doubt in his mind that it was love. *They are each other's first real love. *Conrad sometimes teases her about her freckles, which he knows she is insecure about. *Belly had a childhood crush on Conrad starting when she was ten years old. While the two were good friends due to to growing up together, Conrad never reciprocated the feeling and only saw her as a little sister figure. Ironically, it was only after Belly tried moving on from her childhood crush that Conrad finally began returning her feelings. Also ironically, Belly was the one well known to have been "crazy" so-to-speak about Conrad, who initially never returned the feelings. By the final novel, it was Conrad who fell head over heels in love with Belly and confessed his feelings in a passionate love declaration. *Belly had her first slow dance with Conrad and named him as the first boy she ever cried over and ever loved. *While Conrad dated many girls, Susannah said that she only ever saw him genuinely in love once - which was with Belly. Conrad later confirmed this statement when asked if he had ever been in love and he said he has once. He then reveals it to have been with Belly and, later, admits that he feels like Belly is the only girl who he can ever truly be with and love. *The only time Conrad ever laid himself "fucking bare" emotionally-speaking was with Belly. This was in the final novel ''We'll Always Have Summer where Conrad breaks down and confesses his true feelings for Belly and pleads with her not to marry Jeremiah. He even openly cries with her and, despite Belly resisting, tightly embraces her while doing so. When Belly brutally rejects him, he further states she broke his heart when she did so. *Conrad and Belly's first relationship lasted six months, during which Conrad claims in'' We'll Always Have Summer'' that he never so much as looked at another girl. *Both times Conrad and Belly broke the other's heart, through their perspective and narrative of the moment, they both said that the moment they rejected the other they saw the "love" they had in their eyes for them "die". *When Conrad begins writing Belly hand-written letters during her time in Spain, he says the last time he did such a thing was with his grandmother when thanking her for graduation money. When Belly finally began writing him back, he kept the first letter she wrote him and carried it around with him in his wallet so he would literally always have it with him as it "kept him going" and "gave him hope". Upon reuniting as a couple and getting married, Belly convinced Conrad to keep the letters they wrote to each other together as they "belonged" together. Conrad initially wished to continue to keep the letter with him, but soon agreed with Belly. *The "secret" Christmas they spent together at Cousins Beach is stated to be their "best" Christmas ever for each other. *It is possibly implied that the first time Conrad flirted with Belly was in The Summer I Turned Pretty. This is when Belly tries to convince Conrad to stop smoking and he suggestively asks her what she will give him if he does, leaving Belly shocked since he had never done such a thing before. *Conrad is "two years a quarter" older Belly. *Conrad is shown to be rather protective of Belly at times. A few examples of this are when he becomes angry with her when she wants to leave with Cam (whom she just met) at a party, even giving Cam such an (unseen, yet implied) intimidating look that it left him instantly scared. Another account is when he becomes outraged upon hearing that Jeremiah cheated on Belly, since he thought he would take care of her and treat her right, and literally "sees red" in the height of his anger and leaves in order to calm down. *Some readers were left upset at the ending of We'll Always Have Summer ''regarding how the reader did not get to actually see Belly and Conrad's reunion as a couple or any romantic moments the couple shared together - such their first kiss after being apart for so long or Conrad's proposal to Belly. However, they were still happy to see Conrad and Belly get together nonetheless. *A major symbol of their relationship is infinity. Conrad had explained the concept of infinity to Belly when she was a young kid, which she never forgot about. During ''The Summer I Turned Pretty, Conrad decides to buy Belly an infinity necklace for her sixteenth birthday. However, at the last minute, he becomes too scared to give it to her and instead claims that he forgot about her birthday. In It's Not Summer Without You, Belly discovers his gift and, knowing that it was meant for her, secretly takes the necklace and wears it throughout the novel. When Conrad later finds out about this, Belly claims to not know the meaning of it, even though Conrad states that she does. She reluctantly gives it back to him. Two years later in We'll Always Have Summer, Conrad gives the necklace back to Belly and confesses that he bought it for her sixteenth birthday, but was too nervous to actually give it to her. He then says that it always belonged to her and always will, implying he has always loved her and always will. *When Belly first arrived at Cousins Beach in The Summer I Turned Pretty with her new contacts on (she had always worn glasses before this), Conrad said he prefers her with her glasses. Category:Romances Category:Relationships Category:Love Triangle Category:"Summer Kids" Category:Friendships Category:The Summer I Turned Pretty Category:It's Not Summer Without You Category:We'll Always Have Summer